Wireless terminals that support transmission of uplink traffic, e.g., user data, from the wireless terminal to a base station normally use uplink air link resources to both communicate control information and user data. In multiple access wireless communications systems, typically, multiple wireless terminals using a common base station attachment point are competing for valuable uplink air link resources, e.g., uplink traffic channel air link resources. One approach to partitioning uplink traffic channel resources is for the wireless terminals to send resource requests to their current base station attachment point, and for the base station to consider the competing requests. The base station may then allocate resources, e.g., uplink traffic channel segments, in accordance with various scheduling rules.
Individual wireless terminals may have different needs for uplink traffic channel resources at different times, e.g., depending on a variety of factors such as the type(s) of user data to be communicated, latency requirements, predetermined data groupings, and/or priority levels. Different types of user data with different transmission requirements may be, for example, voice data, image data, Web browser information, data files, etc.
Different resource needs may also be due to the fact that an individual wireless terminal may experience different channel quality conditions and/or have different amounts of power available for transmission at different points in time. Factors such as channel quality and power availability can influence acceptable data transmission rates.
A single fixed interpretation uplink traffic channel request report format used for a particular type of uplink request report, understood by the base station and the wireless terminals, and used uniformly in the system, although simple to implement, is not well suited to efficiently communicate a wide range of uplink traffic channel request information.
Based on the above discussion, it should be appreciated that there is a need for methods and apparatus for reporting information in an efficient manner. It would be desirable if at least some efficient reporting methods could be devised. It would also be desirable if at least some methods could be used to implement an uplink traffic channel resource request structure which is accommodating to a wide range of wireless terminal operating conditions, types of wireless terminals and/or blend of applications. It should also be appreciated that for some systems there is a need for at least some methods and apparatus which can efficiently communicate the varying needs of individual wireless terminals for uplink traffic channel resources. Methods and apparatus which achieve reporting diversity while accommodating small information report size would be beneficial. It would be beneficial if at least some methods and apparatus facilitate a wide range of quantization schemes such that a particular quantization scheme well suited to a wireless terminal at a particular time can be selected and used by the wireless terminal to communicate backlog information. It would also be beneficial if at least some of the methods and apparatus for efficient reporting were to make use of available information already being communicated between the wireless terminal and base station such as quality information, thus expanding reporting options while retaining a small report bit size.